By David DeRocco

There’s something to be said about a well-travelled bluesman. Take Pierre Lacocque for example. Born in Israel to Christian-Belgian parents, the young Lacocque lived in Germany, France and Belgium before his family came to America. Thankfully, they settled on Chicago, a city with roots planted so deeply in the blues that the young Lacocque couldn’t avoid his eventual fate: becoming the founding member and harp player for the traditional Chicago electric blues band known as MISSISSIPPI HEAT.

On a fall night in 1969, an impressionable Lacocque found himself in the audience at the University of Chicago, listening to legendary harmonica player Big Walter Horton bending notes in his signature amped-up fashion. Hearing that sound inspired Lacocque to not only pick up the harp, but to become a virtuoso and founding member of a culturally diverse blues band. As the leader of an ever evolving cast of members and guests, Mississippi Heat has at times featured a Who’s Who of Windy City blues vets, including John Primer, Carl Weathersby, Deirtra Farr, Katherine Davis and Bob Stronger. The band’s latest release, Cab Driving Man, was inspired musically by the legendary Cab Calloway, whose last acting role was in the film “The Blues Brothers” – amovie that also contained a cameo appearance by Lacocque’s inspired mentor, Big Walter Horton.

October 13, Mississippi Heat joins the stellar line-up of the 2018 CANAL BANK SHUFFLE blues festival in Thorold. Lacocque took time to chat with GoBeWeekly about the band, living in Canada and the recent loss of Chicago blues legend Otis Rush.

GOBE: Before we start I’m wondering if you could comment on the loss of a Chicago blues legend, Otis Rush, this past weekend.

PIERRE: It’s an enormous loss. Otis Rush was seminal, so influential in his guitar and musical styles. He introduced the minor keys in blues. Actually, Santana was quite influenced by him. Otis was a phenomenal singer, a phenomenal guitar player, a left handed guitar player. His phrasing, the emotionality of his playing was so moving. His vocals were sincere, honest and from the depths of the heart. He has to be one of the best guitar players in the blues world ever. It’s a big loss for us.

GOBE: You lived in Montreal six years and know what hockey means to Canadians. What do the blues mean to Chicago. How important is the music to the city’s character.

PIERRE: We may take the music for granted in Chicago. It’s the capital of the blues, and there are so many bands here. But not many play with a traditional flavour. Mississippi Heat try to preserve the genre, but we are totally a post war Chicago blues band. Many blues bands, the so called Chicago blues bands, push toward R&B. It’s quite intriguing to me that there’s less excitement about doing traditional blues. It’s when you leave Chicago you realize how loved the music is. In Europe. In Canada. We travel the world and people go nuts. People respond to the soulful, traditional style of music. Maybe in Chicago we have a surplus.

GOBE: As a Canadian living on the border I know how different audiences can be here compared to the U.S. How do European audiences respond to the blues.

PIERRE: They go wild, that’s the word. On my last trip we played Lithuania, Denmark, Germany, France. No matter where we played, people – I would use the word, respect – what we do. And they respond. The French get moved by the blue notes we play. It has tradition and history and people may not know where it comes from but they get moved by the mood. It’s not just a sad mood either. In the old days blues were typically sad, but the blues are about life, about experience that translates into music. I’m amazed and happy that people respond like this. In Germany they go nuts. The Netherlands the same. It’s a universal music. People respond to the universality of the message.

GOBE: I find that people who have a stereotypical view of what blues music is don’t understand how joyful it can be.

PIERRE: I myself feel it’s all about inspiration. If I have anything to say about us, Mississippi Heat, it’s we’re about inspiration. We live in the moment. We feel the music and share the inspiration. That’s what makes it worthwhile. It’s not about money even though money helps. It’s really all about the inspiration, the insights that this music brings to the human condition, my condition, about being alive.

GOBE: I love the story of your background, how you landed in Chicago but eventually wound up in Montreal for six years in a band called Oven. What are your memories of your time in Montreal.

PIERRE: I loved Montreal, because it had a European feel to me. I always felt welcomed and enjoyed my years there. Musically I found some people that were interested in Chicago blues and the British blues movement, John Mayall and Eric Clapton, so I was lucky enough to meet people like that. If I had my family living with me in Montreal I would have stayed.

GOBE: Your unique life experiences must give you some great insights into the human condition and people of different culture and background. How does that impact the writing of a blues song.

PIERRE: Yes that’s true. There’s a personal experience of being a foreigner, the experience of not belonging that came very early in my life. I’m not Jewish but I went to a very Jewish Orthodox School, so all of that created a certain experience of belonging yet not belonging. My childhood was difficult, all of that helped. But over the years things got better. I’m blessed with having married my wife, the grandchildren. Things with time get better and better, so I have this whole range of things to talk about frankly. And I like to listen when people talk. I don’t sing, so I write for my singer Inetta Visor. And I write from a female perspective of how things are, so that adds a different dimension. I sometimes have to adapt what I write from a male to a female perspective, and will ask Inetta questions. She’s the one singing, and I would rather she identifies with the lyrics more than me.

GOBE: You’re coming up to play a great festival, one celebrating its 17^th year. What kind of heat will Mississippi Heat be bringing to this show.

PIERRE: We were in Thorold two years ago and I loved it. To me being in Canada brings tender response, because I have nothing but positive memories. I love going to Canada and meeting Canadians from all walks of life. What they can expect are songs from the Cab Driving Man CD and other songs. It’s going to be exciting. I know the band loves coming up there. There’s a Canadian experience compared to the U.S. that’s really welcoming, not stressful, and respectful. So that’s enjoyable for us.